Researching Relevant Professional Development Learning Task #1: Investigating a Professional Development Conference Melinda Re January 1999

I attended the 1998 University of Minnesota Extension Service Annual Conference, Navigating Our Future. In my 13 years with extension, I had never attended the conference as a whole. Occasionally when it was held close to my home in the Brainerd Lakes area, I would go to 1or 2 of the sessions as possible.

I decided to attend this conference to connect to extension. As a "telecommuter" (my office is in my home), I sometimes feel out of the loop of what's going on in the organization. Another incentive to attend was that it was directly linked to the cohort group. It was my understanding that we were to get together as a group for the first time at the conference.

I attended 7 sessions:

Winning at WorkWorking to Win - Mary Jo Paloranta Stress: Panic to Power! - Mary Jo Paloranta Thank God it's Monday: Visions of the Workplace - Doug Knowlton From Theory into Practice with Early Childhood Physical Activity & Nutrition - Sally Ehlinger The Dollar Works Program -- Cindy Petersen, et al Power of Positive Insanity - Mark Therrien Navigating Our Future - Katherine Fennelly

In addition, I had initially intended to attend: Quickstart to Power Point '97 Advanced Power Point '97 Cruising the Internet for Funding Opportunities

I could not arrange to arrive on Monday afternoon in time for the first Power Point session, so I did not attend the second Power Point session either. I found myself exhausted by sitting in sessions (why is "doing nothing" so hard on a person's body?) by late on Wednesday, so I skipped that late afternoon session.

During my 3 days at Annual Conference, I saw and talked to 11 Nutrition Education Assistants (NEAs) who were attending the sessions I was attending. The NEAs work with the 2 nutrition education programs, one of which I used to work, and the other one of which I am currently a project coordinator.

I chose to survey the NEAs about their experience at the conference for 3 reasons. The first was to fulfill this learning task. The second was to provide extension administration with information on the effectiveness of Annual Conference for NEAs (I have sent this to Katherine Fennelly). The Dean and Directors Office provided the funds for NEAs to attend and I thought they might like to know how effective the training was for them.

Until recently, Annual Conference was not a staff development opportunity open to NEAs. To the best of my understanding, it was only after food and nutrition specialists (and others I'm sure) took up the cause at the state level to have the NEAs invited to it, that NEAs were included in the conference. This is the third reason I wanted to find out how useful it was for NEAs. I had been one of a small group of NEAs that consistently, publicly spoke out for NEAs to be able to attend Annual Conference. I wanted to know if my hard work was paying off for the people in those positions.

I asked all 11 NEAs to answer the following questions for me:

1) What sessions did you attend? (I wanted to see what kinds of sessions they signed up for and attended. I also wanted to see the number of sessions they attended. I thought that might give me an idea of the cost/benefit of sending an employee out of town. However, many of the NEAs that responded were from the Duluth area and only came over to the conference as their daily work schedules allowed.)

2) Which was your favorite? Why?

3) Which was your least favorite? Why?

4) What information or idea did you learn at Annual Conference that you have already used in your work?

5) Dr. Fennelly said in her closing remarks that Annual Conference costs "hundreds of thousands of dollars". Thinking about your own professional development, was it worth the money? Why or why not?

Only 7 of the NEAs responded to my questions. They attended an average of 5 sessions each. With approximately 14 time slots to fill, they attended about 1/3 of the conference.

3 people cited "Stress: Panic to Power" as their favorite session. Comments were upbeat: "Reminded me to laugh at ourselves"; "A fun dynamic speaker that gave me information that I could associate with immediately"; "Inspired me to be the person they hired and do it well". 2 people enjoyed the "Power of Insanity" session the most. Again, they had very positive comments: "The session gave me humor and respect for differences" and "Uplifting, encouraging, inspirational". The other NEAs found the "Building Your Multicultural Toolbox" and "Writing Success Stories" their favorite because one was "more hands-on than lecture" and the other was "directly applicable to my work."

4 of the NEAs indicated that the Nutrition, Food and Health Specialization training, "From Theory into Practice with Early Childhood Physical Activity & Nutrition" was their least favorite session. How could the staff involved with nutrition education find the nutrition training so irrelevant? Their comments shed light on the problem: "Not directly related to my work"; "Information was not appropriate to my work"; Interesting, but we aren't allowed to teach physical activity"; "The topic was too narrow - not something I will use in my work".

The other least favorite sessions were "Thank God it's Monday: Visions of the Workplace" and "Keep Your Retirement Working". These sessions were given low marks because they provided different information than the attendees were expecting.

All of the NEAs comments on ideas from the conference that they had already implemented are reflective of a change of perspective and "mood": "Dealing with stress, building teamwork, supporting staff and clients"; "Learning to get along with others, a little humor goes a long way, listen to what others are saying"; "Keeping things in perspective, need for humor and fun in our jobs, working to decrease stress"; "Encouraged me to apply what I knew but had forgotten while stressed"; "Made me feel like I want to be a good and positive addition to the staff"; and "I bought a smiley face pencil to go with my work calendar to remind me to lighten up".

Was the cost worth it? 4 of the NEAs said it was not worth the cost of sending them to the conference. They felt that other, shorter training that is more directly related to their work would be more beneficial. 3 of the NEAs felt it was worth it. An NEA summed up Annual Conference like this: "We are a team. We build teams, discover resources, gain skills, broaden our perspectives and are better able to work together to carry out our mission to the people of Minnesota." Another "liked the emphasis on being positive no matter what is going on around you. It made me want to be a better co-worker and employee. Professionally speaking, I think the way you view something (positively or negatively) has huge impact on work performance." One NEA felt that most of the sessions offered were not pertinent to their job, however, "the networking and getting spiritually charged from fellow co-workers is hard to ignore".

OK, what does all this mean? It seems to me that the NEAs participated in training that fostered personal development more than anything (this was one of the objectives of Annual Conference). They were enriched by the sessions. In discussing the conference with an NEA, she told me that it couldn't have been valuable for her because what she gained was "personal" not "professional". It seems that they felt it was a waste of their time if they enjoyed it, but can't put their fingers on what they learned.

The Nutrition, Food and Health Specialization team has been trying to provide the Extension Educators and the nutrition program staff the education that they need to stay sharp in the field. It has long been argued that the education that is appropriate for the Extension Educators is not appropriate for NEAs. I think that was evident in the comments concerning the training.

If Annual Conference is going to be effective for NEAs (although, that won't be a concern this October), sessions must be offered that are directly related to their work. The nutrition education provided must be within the context of their work and program guidelines.

I recommend that the NEAs be involved in the planning process in order to make Annual Conference a more effective professional development opportunity for them. NEAs could be involved either directly by serving on the planning committee, or indirectly by making their needs known to the planning committee.

The outcome statement for the conference was "to strengthen our shared commitment to the University of Minnesota Extension Service Mission". In reading their surveys, I can see that the NEAs who attended Annual Conference fulfilled that outcome. I'm glad that I fought so hard for them to have the option to chose to attend. Now we just have to make sure that the conference includes enough valuable sessions for them. And give them permission to be personally enriched at a professional conference!

-- Anonymous, January 13, 1999

Answers

Very thorough and thoughtful job. I am happy to see also, that you not only collected improtant, useful information, but you went further to make recommendations. Great.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 1999